The influence of firm-specific characteristics on the extent of voluntary disclosure in XBRL : Empirical analysis of SEC filings

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the influence of several firm-specific characteristics on the extent of voluntary disclosure in eXtensible business reporting language (XBRL). Design/methodology/approach – A disclosure checklist consisting of 54 financial and non-financial items in XBRL format is developed to examine the extent of voluntary disclosure in the 2008 annual reports of 51 US listed firms. Findings – The results show that firm size and firms' level of innovativeness are significantly and positively related to the extent of overall disclosures. Research limitations/implications – There are, however, several limitations in the study. First, a relatively small sample size of 51 firms from the year 2008. Second, the construction of an unweighted disclosure index based on the elements, which were voluntarily disclosed, may not be the best measurement. It might be interesting to replicate this study based on a larger sample size from another voluntary filing program. Originality/value – The findings of this study should be of interest to firms that prepare, “clients” that use and regulators that monitor financial reporting disclosures in XBRL.